Heavy rains have caused severe flooding across central Vietnam, particularly affecting the popular tourist destinations of Hue and Hoi An, the government reported on Tuesday. Rainfall in parts of the UNESCO-listed former imperial capital and the ancient town exceeded 1,000 millimetres in the 24-hour period ending late Monday, according to the national disaster management agency.
Photos circulating on state media showed much of Hoi An inundated, with several houses submerged up to their roofs, as authorities deployed boats to evacuate tourists. In Hue, 32 out of 40 communes were hit by flood waters reaching depths of 1-2 metres, with the government describing the flood levels as a record high.
Throughout central Vietnam, authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of people from flooded areas, where transportation and power have been cut off. State media reported that heavy flooding forced the state-run Vietnam Railways Corp to suspend services between the capital Hanoi and the business hub Ho Chi Minh City.
The government said in a separate report that more than 306,000 households and businesses in Hue, Danang and Quang Tri provinces were suffering from blackouts. Water levels in the main rivers were peaking, and heavy flooding would continue over the next days, with additional risks of landslides, the weather forecasting agency said.
Vietnam is prone to often deadly storms and flooding, especially during its storm season from June until October. Natural disasters killed 187 people and caused property damage worth 16.1 trillion dong ($611 million) in the first nine months of this year, according to government statistics.
